Interviews With the Authors

This week Nick, Terry, and Mike sit down with Marc Cushman to discuss These Are the Voyages Season One, "the Director’s cut" of the first volume, and his upcoming book These Are the Voyages Season Two, among other topics.

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Podcast Interview by 'Hot Nerd Girl'

Tracy aka 'Princess Trek' and Darcy interview author Marc Cushman, and producers John D.F. Black and his wife Mary Black after reading "These Are The Voyages, TOS: Season One." "While at Comikaze I exchanged business cards with the lovely folks running the booth and when the opportunity arose to interview Marc, John and Mary on the podcast, Darcy and I jumped on it. What follows is one of the greatest moments that has happened to me since I started HNG back in 2010. The chance to discuss Star Trek with people who were there and with someone who is, in mine and I’m sure many other people’s opinions, one of the foremost authorities on the subject."

Commentary: Trek Stars 53: Kung Fu VulcanBlack & Cushman, Part 2: Star Trek & These are the Voyages.Only months after publication, Marc Cushman’s These are the Voyages is already considered to be the most thorough insight into the making of Star Trek: The Original Series. With 500 pages dedicated to Season One and two more volumes on the way, it is quite clearly the definitive history of Gene Roddenberry’s classic show.

In our third season premiere, Mike and Max present the second half of their interview with Marc and Original Series veterans John D.F. & Mary Black. We talk about how television has changed since the sixties, what other movies and shows John has written, and what we can expect to see in the next two volumes of These are the Voyages. We also ponder what it would have been like if Spock had left after Season One.

These are the Voyages, TOS, Season One can be purchased now on Amazon.com, with Seasons Two and Three set for release in the coming months.

Commentary: Trek Stars 52: Chasing TiresBlack & Cushman, Part 1: Star Trek & These are the Voyages.These are the Voyages has quickly become the most critically acclaimed book ever written on the making of Star Trek. It is a comprehensive look at the day-to-day operation of The Original Series, from script to air.

In the second season finale, Max and Mike are joined by the book’s author and Next Generation writer Marc Cushman, Original Series writer and producer John D.F. Black, and his wife and Original Series assistant, Mary Black. We discuss what makes this book different from others, what it was like to work on The Original Series, and how the industry has changed over the years. We also try to figure out how you can tell when a writer is lying about missing a deadline.Part 2 of the interview will air November 8, 2013.

In part five of Access’ five-part exclusive series, “These Are The Voyages” author Marc Cushman and “Star Trek” first season Associate Producer John D.F. Black discuss the lasting contributions of “Star Trek’s” unsung hero -- producer Gene Coon. Plus, why was the show really on a five year mission?

Access Hollywood by Scott MantzPart 4 of 5 (Exclusive)

These Are The Voyages: How Was The Star Trek Opening Monolog?

In part four of Access’ five-part exclusive series, “These Are The Voyages” author Marc Cushman and “Star Trek” first season Associate Producer John D.F. Black discuss the famous "Space, the Final Frontier" opening monologue -- how was it written? Plus, why does John describe his time on the classic show as "hellish"?

In part three of Access’ five-part exclusive series, “These Are The Voyages” author Marc Cushman and “Star Trek” first season Associate Producer John D.F. Black discuss the differences between William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy.

Access Hollywood by Scott Mantz

These Are The Voyages: Why Was Gene Roddenberry At Odds With The Star Trek Writers? Part 2 of 5(Exclusive)

In part two of Access’ five-part exclusive series, “These Are The Voyages” author Marc Cushman and “Star Trek” first season Associate Producer John D.F. Black discuss why the show's creator, Gene Roddenberry, was at odds with the writers.

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Marc Cushman, author of These are the Voyages - TOS: Season One, will be interviewed by Mike and Derrick on the morning drive show over Power 96, "Classic Rock" KQCL 95.9 FM, in Faribault, MN.

Mike and Derrick will interview John D.F. Black, Associate Producer and Executive Story Editor from the original Star Trek, Season One, along with his wife Mary, who served as John's assistant on TOS, on the Friday morning broadcast.

Access Hollywood by Scott MantzThese Are the Voyages: Behind The Scenes Of The Original Star Trek – Part I of 5(Exclusive) In part one of Access’ five-part exclusive series, “These Are The Voyages” author Marc Cushman and “Star Trek” first season Associate Producer John D.F. Black discuss why the book took so long to see the light of day.

FOX 5 - KVVU - MORE - Las Vegas, NV, USAMarc Cushman is interviewed by Jason on the MORE show during the Star Trek Convention in Las Vegas, August 2013.

An interview with Marc Cushman about the writing of "These are the Voyages"

Marc, what lead you to write "These are the Voyages..?" I interviewed Gene Roddenberry for a TV special about the Star Trek phenomenon in 1982. He gave me all the scripts and showed me the immense amount of documents he had saved from the production of the series and suggested I take the research for the TV special, expand on it by utilizing the gigantic "show files" and turn it into a book. I interviewed him at that time and again in 1989 when I pitched the story for the episode "Sarek" to him for Star Trek: Next Generation. I was too busy with my own career as a screenwriter and director to begin work on the book until after Gene had passed, but, during those years, I continued to collect interviews from the creative staff (Bob Justman, D.C. Fontana, John D.F. Black), as well as members of the production crew, the cast, and guest players. I finally began writing the Star Trek book in 2007. And it was meant to be one book. Six years later it was roughly 1,700 pages in length, and had to be divided into three books (one for each season of TOS). What are the most amazing facts that you uncovered? I'd say that about 30% of the info out there on TOS -- on the internet, in other books and articles -- is false. There is a remarkable amount of folklore about the history of Star Trek, which has been reported in other sources as if true, while so many unknown facts have been left unreported. For one, the writers whose names appear on the screen often did less than 50% of the work on particular episodes. Gene Roddenberry rewrote the first 13 episode of TOS almost entirely. Gene Coon handled much of the rewriting after that and, between himself and Dorothy Fontana, and Roddenberry, a good percentage of the dialogue we heard in every episode came from their typewriters, without credit. It is fascinated to see the memos that flew back and forth between the creative staff as they assessed and reworked the scripts. And to find out how many stories and scripts by famous science fiction authors did not get filmed. We see how the staff thought, what they liked and what they worried about. And there was much more drama behind the making of Star Trek than I'd never realized, even though, as part of my research, I'd read hundreds of articles, all the books written about the making of the series, including the memoirs from all the cast members, and visited all the internet fan sites. There are many stories out there, but they are merely the tip of the iceberg. The show files -- the immense amount of documents saved by Gene Roddenberry and Robert Justman -- tell of all the ups and downs and strange turns that the production went through, week after week. The increasingly restrictive budgets, the battles with the network, cast problems, such as when Leonard Nimoy almost quit the show at the end of the first year over a contract dispute and they had even hired a replacement to be the new resident Vulcan on the Enterprise, and so much more. But the biggest revelation, for me, was the ratings. NBC claimed Star Trek was a failure in the ratings and this myth has been repeated over and over for 45 years without anyone bothering to verify the statement. I licensed all the ratings reports from A.C. Nielsen and include them with each episode. These reports contradict what we have always been told, showing that Star Trek was often the network's top rated Thursday night show and, on many occasions, won its time slot. Even when moved to Friday nights at 8:30 for its second year, which is covered in Book 2, Star Trek again, more often than not, was NBC's top rated show for that night. And yet they tried to cancel it, which was stopped by a massive letter writing campaign from the fans. So the network moved it to Friday's at 10 p.m. for its third year (covered in Book 3), known as "the death shot," the worst time period of the week. And, even then, the ratings were better than we have been led to believe. Have you heard from any of the original cast since the release of the first book? Grace Lee Whitney was the first, who said she "loved" the book. Walter Koenig took a copy up on stage at a Star Trek convention and talked about it for a couple minutes, saying it he "guaranteed" it was the best documentation on the making of the original series to be published. A gentleman who worked in the V.I.P. section at the Los Vegas Star Trek convention came to the publisher's booth and told us that William Shatner was carrying a copy of the book around back stage and suggested he come get himself a copy. And Leonard Nimoy called to tell me that he felt the research was "astounding." He said it was "an incredible job; a tremendous amount of good information" and that "the reviews are wonderful and well deserved." That coming from Mr. Spock, impressed by the amount of research. You just can't beat that.

What's in store for fans in books 2 and 3?Book 1 has been extremely well received, but I feel Book 2 and 3 will be even more surprising, because the story of the making of Star Trek gets far more dramatic; the conflicts and challenges are greater, as the show progressed into its second and than third seasons. As Gene Roddenberry's relationship with NBC deteriorated, and the budgets were slashed, the time slots got worse, and the threats of cancellation grew louder. They would often be filming an episode in the middle of a season without knowing if they would even be making any more, with scripts being prepared to film one week later just in case the network decided to order additional episodes. It was an enormous strain for all of them -- the producers, writers and stars -- to be working under that, with a possible death sentence hanging over their heads. It was really quite cruel the way television operated back then, mostly as a result of an adversarial relationship between a producer and the network. Gene was telling stories the network was not comfortable with -- stories about Vietnam, racism, sexism, religion, over-population, you name it. It is all revealed in the memos, as well the production schedules, budgets, and ratings, episode by episode, as we progress through the "Classic 79." It was a remarkable trek.